Stuck at the bottom of the social ladder at pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be here,” Maya Van Wagenen decided to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help Maya on her quest to be popular?
The real-life results are painful, funny, and include a wonderful and unexpected surprise—meeting and befriending Betty Cornell herself. Told with humor and grace, Maya’s journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence.
As an aggressively nerdy and not particularly elegant young lady. I avoid many books abut making over geeks primarily out of shame. Honestly, I expected this book to be a 'the girl takes off her glasses and everyone realises she was pretty all along' kind of book, but it really wasn't. I realise now that yes, she did make a physical transformation, making her more traditionally appealing. But really, this book is a message of inner beauty.
I know what you're thinking, messages? from a fifteen year old. Yeah it surprised me too. But the thing is, this girl has managed to figured out a lot of things I didn't figure out until I turned twenty, and some things I still struggle with now. She has a message and sends it to the masses and yet, it's not preachy. Maya is aggressively relatable, I mean I think most people can relate to the bullied and unnoticed, being seen as the lowest of the low within the school social ladder. Yet Maya deals with this with a gentle grace. That kind of treatment made me very untrusting and angry throughout school, a thing that still afflicts me today. However Maya still manages to remain compassionate and kind in the face of adversity. She speaks for redemption and the pure kindness within humans. It's an incredibly inspiration book and view of the world.
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These themes are nicely balanced with the candid humour of Maya's (to quote Tina Fey) 'Word Vomit'. As a tenured professor of making an idiot out of yourself I was well aware of word vomit, bt Maya takes it to a whole new level - when she accidentally recites and entire chapter of The Hobbit and the guy just walks away with no words- I swear I almost peed. Then we have Maya's brilliant bravery. The guts and moxy she must have had to read what she had to do next and actually gone along with it. I mean who would've known if she hadn't. Every time someone insulted her she just turned it into a compliment. It takes balls to do that and a lot of self respect.
'I don't quite have the same finesse'
Overall I thought this book was delightful and insightful. The laugh to learn ratio was like 1:1. And it kept me thinking after I turned the final page. Maya is exactly what is right with the world and that's a thing we don't think abut enough these days. She's a reminder that people still retain the ability to surprise you and see the best in you.
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